D'Alessandro: Jose Reyes giving Mets a Rickey Henderson-like season

Noah K. Murray/The Star-LedgerMets shortstop Jose Reyes argues with home Plate umpire Jerry Layne after he was called out after trying to steal third base in the seventh inning of Friday night's 5-1 loss to the Yankees in the first game of the Subway Series at Citi Field.

NEW YORK — It’s already been 40 days and nights since Fred Wilpon — owner and savvy investor — pitched a snit and told the New Yorker that Jose Reyes isn’t worth $142 million. And like a starter’s pistol, that coincided with the stats getting fatter, the team getting better and the price tag turning gaudier.

By now, ol’ Fred knows what the rest of us know: Any shortstop who plays on this level — while demonstrating an unremitting joy in the process — is worth whatever the market can bear, especially in this precinct.

That’s assuming the Mets actually have an owner who is willing to pay the price of doing business, and not one who is trying to stay one step ahead of the pitchforks.

Let’s stick with the stuff we can quantify, for now — fielding, hitting, running, dominating — and ask for a perspective from a guy who has seen the greats, the near-greats and the ingrates:

“As you know, I was with Rickey for a number of years,” Mets boss Sandy Alderson said in the tunnel tonight, recalling his days with Rickey Henderson in Oakland. “And I don’t remember any short period of time with Rickey that was even comparable to this.”

Yes, we did a double-take.

Alderson noticed it, then nodded.

“I mean, over an extended period of time, there was a body of work there” that put Henderson on his rightful path to Cooperstown, he continued. “But in terms of the magnitude of (Reyes’) performance — the three months this year, but especially the past month or so — it’s somewhat incomparable.”

Meanwhile, down the hall, Alex Rodriguez put an exclamation point on it: “All-World,” he called Reyes.

“They have the world’s greatest player playing shortstop over there — and the most exciting. I turn on the TV every time I get a chance to watch him.”

Like everyone else, our favorite part of Reyes’ game is when he gets on base, which is all it takes for pitchers to start getting all weird in the attic. He wins games with his legs as often as he does with his glove and bat. He has 30 steals, which matches his total from a year ago, and sometimes you see a race going on between the pitcher’s brain and his expression. Some pitchers are defeated as soon as he steps in the box, like some guys in Detroit, where Reyes turned Comerica Park into his private playground.

“Some pitchers it affects visibly,” Alderson said. “Certainly (Rick) Porcello was. There’s no question they know he’s there. And it’s just a question of whether they’re going to give in to the notion that he’s going to end up on second base, and just focus on the hitter.”

You probably saw the June numbers, courtesy of Elias: If you’re looking for someone who had a better month in four areas (45 hits, 29 runs, seven triples, 11 steals), you have to go back 99 years to Ty Cobb.

Does Reyes know what he’s doing to pitchers now? Of course he does. Is he enjoying it? You have no idea. There was a scrum of a dozen writers around him in pregame tonight, and almost every response to each question was accompanied by a laugh, one of those I-am-sincerely-loving-life chuckles that you cannot suppress when you’re hitting .352.

“I’m here for you guys when you need me. I have no problem at all,” he announced at one point. “I don’t have a problem with it. That’s the way I am.”

You can just envision Derek Jeter and A-Rod making the same offer, can’t you?

Anyway, the Wilpon assessment — inane as it was — never broke this kid’s stride. He was just starting his MVP ascent then, and he’s at his apex now. He was a top-five free-agent target then, he may be neck-and-neck with Albert Pujols now. He loved New York then, he loves it even more now. All they have to do is pay him.

“It’s fun, man. I love it,” Reyes said. “Because the fans here, they’re different. This place is never quiet. That’s good, I like it. I’ve been here my whole career, so I like it.”

The plan was for him to show all that to the Yanks and their haughty legions this weekend, but it didn’t work out on the first night. That didn’t mean Reyes didn’t have his electric moment in the seventh, lining his second single through the box, then tagging up to reach second after Justin Turner flied deep to center.

He tried to stretch his luck another 90 feet after Eduardo Nunez (who else?) flubbed the relay, before the Yanks shortstop recovered to make the throw to third, at least according to plate ump Jerry Layne, galloping to the scene like a frisky rhino.

“Whether he’s out or safe,” Terry Collins said, “I don’t want to corral this guy. I don’t want this guy to start thinking he shouldn’t play like that.”

The overriding point being, win or lose, this guy makes you rush. In fact, every time Reyes goes into this fast-twitch assault on the game, he can make nine strangers flinch to the point of worried fascination. Just wait until you see the effect he’ll have on owners.